


An Unexpected Visitor

by torigates



Category: Primeval
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:16:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Is that a baby?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Unexpected Visitor

“Uh, guys?”

Connor’s voice rang out above the chaos that was the ARC team setting up their equipment outside the latest anomaly site. Abby looked up from the console she was examining, which was currently giving her readings indicating this portal was opening somewhere in the vicinity of the late fourteenth century. She didn’t immediately see Connor amongst all the commotion that usually came with a fresh anomaly, but when she did spot him, she immediately saw what had his attention.

“Is that a baby?”

All the chatter and commotion died down immediately, and every face turned to look at what had captured Abby and Connor’s attention.

It was indeed a baby.

“Where... did that baby come from?” Becker asked, staring in horror at the toddler that was crawling around the anomaly site. Abby had to agree with his expression, and she had faced down some seriously frightening monsters in her day.

All eyes turned to Connor, as if as the discoverer of the kid he would automatically know where it came from and how it got there. Connor looked back and forth between the baby and the anomaly a few times, before looking around the wide open clearing where they setting up camp. There was nowhere else the baby could have possibly come from.

“I... I think it came from in there,” he said, pointing towards the large mass of shiny sparkling lights. Unless some extremely negligent parents had left their child alone in the middle of an empty field, in what appeared to be fourteenth century (Abby was guessing, based on what the monitors told her, she was an expert in lizards after all, not an anthropologist) clothes, the toddler must have come through the anomaly.

Abby dropped her head into her hands and groaned.

“Somebody please pick up that baby!” Becker yelled.

Abby peaked through her fingers, and watched, almost in awe as Connor deftly picked up the baby and began rocking it. “Hi mate,” he said. “What’s your name?” The baby grinned toothlessly back at him.

For a bunch that dealt regularly with dinosaurs and other prehistoric monsters on a nearly regular basis, it was kind of surprising how ill-prepared they were to deal with a child. No one seemed to know what to do with it, or how to get it back to its family. Becker, Abby, Sarah and a few other soldiers stood around debating what to do next. Connor stood off to the side, happily playing peak-a-boo with the child.

“Can’t we just... put it back through the anomaly?” Becker asked.

Sarah looked aghast. “No! It’s a baby! We can’t just leave it to fend for itself. It could die!”

Becker nodded, but Abby couldn’t help but notice the half disappointed, half frustrated look on his face. Part of her had to agree with him, things would certainly be easier if they could just corral the kid back through the anomaly, like they did with so many of the other creatures that found their way through them.

Abby backed away from the conversation, as the two of them continued to argue over what should happen next. Naturally, Sarah wanted to take the child home to wherever it came from. Becker accused her of wanting another opportunity to observe the locals, and pointed out the dangers of possibly disturbing the timeline. Their voices faded away as Abby approached Connor.

He had found his way to a rock, and was sitting on it, all attention directed towards their new young friend. His knees were rocking up and down, and occasionally, he would hide his face behind the scarf he was wearing. “You’re doing pretty well with the little one,” Abby remarked, still standing a distance away from the two of them.

Connor smiled up at her. “I like babies,” he said. He turned his attention back toward the child, and Abby marvelled again at how well he was handling it. For a man who dealt with computers more often than he dealt with human beings, Connor was a pro with the kid. This shocked her, and she couldn’t figure out why.

“How do you know it’s not diseased or anything?” Abby asked eventually when it became clear Connor wasn’t going to add anything else.

“First of all, it’s not an ‘it’. It’s a boy,” he said indignantly, looking up at her. “And I hadn’t considered the disease bit,” he admitted, picking up the boy and holding the boy at arm’s length.

Abby immediately felt guilty as he began to squirm and cry in Connor’s grip. “I’m sure he’s fine,” she amended. Connor visibly relaxed and pulled the kid back onto his lap, his knees jiggling furiously once more. The boy started giggling.

“Where do you think he came from?” Abby asked. She stuffed her hands into her pockets. For some reason, watching Connor interact with the young boy made her feel unsettled. She wasn’t used to seeing him so confident and collected. She wasn’t used to seeing him devote all of his attention to a person that wasn’t her.

“Through the anomaly,” Connor said, bouncing the kid higher on his knee. The boy laughed and clapped his hands, clearly amused.

Abby sighed, exasperated. “I know that, Conn,” she said. “I mean, where do you think he came from? Why was he all alone?”

“Oh,” Connor briefly looked up from the boy, and stopped jiggling his knee. “I don’t know,” he said. After a moment the baby smacked Connor. “Cheeky little bugger,” he muttered, rubbing his jaw before starting the bouncing again. “That actually hurt,” he told Abby with a grin.

“What do you think his name is?” Abby asked. She took a few steps closer to Connor and the boy, but kept her distance.

“Ringo,” Connor said without hesitation. He blew a raspberry at the kid. The boy laughed delightedly, and tried to copy Connor with very little success. Abby couldn’t help but smile at the large glob of spit that landed on Connor’s shirt. He didn’t seem to mind.

“Ringo?” she asked. It didn’t seem very fourteenth centuryish.

He shrugged. “That’s what I’m going to call him.”

“He’s not a pet, Connor! You can’t _keep_ him.” Almost without her noticing, Abby had been inching closer and closer to the pair, until now she was standing right over Connor’s shoulder.

“I know that,” he said looking up at her again. He scooted over a little, making room for Abby to sit beside him on the rock. “But I have to call him something. Ringo is just as good as anything else.”

Abby sat down next to him, as she continued to watch the two of them. Heat was radiating off Connor’s body next to her, and she resisted leaning into him. “Where did you learn to take care of kids?” she asked.

He shrugged again. “My mum, I guess. She looked after kids.”

Connor rarely spoke of his family. It was almost jarring now, to hear him do so. “Oh,” she said simply, nodding. It was easy to forget that Connor had a life outside of the Abby and the ARC. She rarely heard him talk about his friends besides Tom and Duncan, and Duncan never came around anymore.

“Do you want to hold him?” Connor asked suddenly.

“What? No,” she said, startled.

Connor laughed at what must have been a horrified expression on her face. “Oh, come on, he won’t bite.”

“But he might have smallpox. Or the plague,” she pointed out, and inched away from the two of them.

Connor looked crestfallen, and Abby immediately felt bad. “I thought we agreed he probably wasn’t diseased,” he said.

“You’re right,” she paused. “Besides, I’m up to date on my vaccinations.”

“So, hold him, then.” He moved into the space Abby had just conceded, holding Ringo out to her. Abby wondered why she was going along with Connor’s ridiculous name for the kid, but she supposed it was a good a name as any.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to.” Abby wasn’t sure why she was being so stubborn on the issue. Something about seeing Connor and a kid rattled her. It was easy to blame it on the fact she just hadn’t had a lot of opportunity to spend time with young children, but it felt like something more. She knew how Connor felt about her, and she was starting to suspect that she felt the same way. At least a little bit. Maybe seeing Connor with a baby was forcing her to confront those feelings, and that scared her.

“Are you scared?” Connor asked, as if he had read her thoughts.

“No.” She crossed her arms over her chest, and turned away from the two of them slightly.

“What is it then?” The tone of his voice was half amused, half concerned. It was just like Connor, and it only managed to freak her out even more. Couldn’t he ever leave well enough alone?

“I just don’t want to, Connor!”

“Fine,” Connor said, turning back to Ringo. “Sorry I asked.”

Abby watched them out of the corner of her eye for a moment longer, before turning to face Connor. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Babies scare me.”

“Just think of him like one of your lizards,” Connor said.

Abby gave him a look.

“Well, not _exactly_ like one of your lizards.” Connor held Ringo out to her, and the boy smiled. “See?” he said. “He likes you.” He plopped Ringo onto her lap, and the boy smiled and clapped his hands.

Abby bounced him a little on her knees.

“See?” Connor said. “He’s not so scary.”

Abby was about to agree when he suddenly stopped smiling. Before Abby could even register the mood change, Ringo opened his mouth and let out an ear piercing wail, and big fat tears leaked out of his eyes. Abby looked over at Connor with what she was sure must have been a look half-way between horror and pleading. Connor grabbed Ringo out of Abby’s lap, and the child immediately stopped crying.

“Oh sure,” Abby agreed. “Not so scary at all.”

Connor grinned at her, either ignoring or not noticing her sarcasm.

“I always thought you’d like babies,” Connor said after a long moment.

“Why?” Abby asked.

Connor shrugged. “Dunno,” he said. “Maybe because you’re so great with animals.”

“Human beings aren’t animals, Connor.”

He looked at her.

“You know what I mean,” she said. “It’s not the same.”

He rolled his eyes. “I know that. It’s just that you’re good with them. And people.”

“People need so much. Animals are simpler, they don’t ask for anything but food and shelter. There’s less chance of getting hurt.” She paused. “I mean hurting someone. I don’t want to be responsible for another person’s well being.”

“We’re all responsible for other people’s well being,” he said. “Especially, this little guy. Isn’t that right, Ringo?” he asked in the most ridiculous baby voice Abby had ever heard.

For some reason Abby couldn’t quite understand, she blushed. “I guess I haven’t been around a lot of children,” she said.

“They’re not bad,” Connor said, smiling down at the now smiling Ringo. “They just want attention.”

“Yeah,” Abby agreed, falling into silence. She continued to watch Connor and Ringo play together. Connor was quite good with him. It wasn’t something she would have expected, but it fit somehow. Abby found herself wondering if Connor wanted children someday, and the thought made her gut clench, but she wasn’t sure why.

The work they did was dangerous. Abby couldn’t imagine bringing a child into a world where at any moment they could be attacked by a raptor, or a predator. Somehow, watching Connor with Ringo, the idea didn’t seem so preposterous.

Abby shook her head, forcing herself out of her reverie. She was being ridiculous. It wasn’t like children were in the near future for her, anyway. Or Connor. Still, she thought, maybe someday.

“Okay,” Sarah said, walking briskly in their direction. Abby and Connor both turned their attention to her. “Becker has finally agreed to let me bring the kid back through the anomaly. We’re just going to look for a village or something, and leave him with the first person we find, then come back and lock it up before anything or anyone else can wonder through.”

Abby nodded.

“Okay, mate,” Connor said seriously to Ringo. “This is my friend Sarah: she’s going to take you home. Be good now.” He handed Ringo over to Sara and patted him on the head.

The baby waved at them as they watched Sara’s retreating back.

“Look how adorable he is,” Connor said. “How can you not love him?”

Abby stared up at Connor’s face, watching him watch Sarah and Ringo disappear through the anomaly. “I don’t know,” she said.

The two of them watched the glimmering lights of the anomaly for another long moment. Suddenly, Abby turned and gave Connor a tight hug. He was startled, but after a brief moment, he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close. Abby leaned into him for what felt like a long time. Eventually, she pulled away.

“What was that for?” Connor asked, his cheeks a little pink.

“Nothing,” Abby said. “Just for being you.”

She grabbed his arm, and the two of them walked over to where the rest of the team was monitoring the anomaly site. There was work to do. 


End file.
